Yesterday Panic - a software development company who basically seem to describe themselves as having enough money to do what they want and aren't tied to shareholders etc, announced a new handheld device called the Playdate.

They've lined up 12 games for it, which are included in the price and unlock 1 per week, designed by people like Keita Takahashi and Bennett Foddy (Katamari and QWOP) and others.

It looks so pretty. There's something about the design that makes me want to throw money at it, but also by liking it and the idea behind it I feel like I should start using mustache wax and riding a fixie bike.

I think it's because it reminds me a little of one of my all time favourite MP3 players, a Sony walkman effort that had a brushed steel case and a really nice form factor. Between the form factor and the idea of getting a game a week in a season, bespokely made for this one weird handheld, man I'm into it.

It reminds me of Rami Ismail's Meditations experiment but on a physical level.

Maybe it's because I have gotten too old too quickly, but that crank screams poorly placed gimmick to me.

I kind of just want someone to make an easy to use open source handheld designed like a GBA SP, only with four face buttons, so I can put a bunch of emulators and ROMs on it. Does that exist?

I've noticed that in the past too.

The crank seems like an obvious wear and tear situation. Or it'll get caught on something and yanked off - will be curious to see what they think.

yeah there's something really appealing about that design in a sense of this just being a cute little accessory that plays neat little games rather than a srs gamer thing to play sekiro on the go.

we'll see if they can hit a sweet spot with price too.

@theht: They've announced it at I think $150, no word on regional pricing from what I know. The price includes Season 1. Assuming it goes well there might be a season 2 you can buy later?

I'm hoping this fits a similar use case for me that I thought the DIY game console ClockworkPI was going to be: novel console that's fun and simple to develop for.

I went ahead and signed up for notifications and I'm curious to see what their SDK.

Also considering Teenage Engineering helped with the industrial design, I would be surprised if it was considerably fragile or anything.

Watch me crank it, watch me roll

Watch me crank dat, Soulja Boy

Then Superman dat oh

@justin258: there are a few weird chinese Android phones you can do that with that have physical buttons and look like PSPs

This is one of those things I'm happy exists but will never get near. It's a cool little thing and I love the idea of distributing a series of games over time, and it's cool to see experimentation with console design. That said, $150 is way too much for me, especially 'cause this seems like a bit of a novelty, especially if the games are as simplistic as they seem they might be. I hope it finds an audience for people who do have the disposable income for it, though. I'd love to see more stuff like this.

I think it sounds like a cool idea. I’d be cool to see them design something like this every couple of years around an interesting design concept and commission developers to produce games that fit the concept.

I haven’t considered buying a handheld since my original run Gameboy. This seems cool, though.

I hope that this eventually leads to more outlandish interactive art devices. This is still very traditional apart from the crank.

It looks neat, but I'm not sure about that crank. Looks like an obvious point of failure for a handheld...

As long as I can turn on the ignition in a car game with the crank, I will giggle with girlish glee, and that's a promise. Preferably in Vice City via an em-- I mean, completely legitimate and totally likely port.

It's pretty fucking cool that Teenage Engineering is involved; I should've guessed from the design. I have messed with their OP-1 and it is an amazing little synth.